


Inhaled Horrors

by Way_too_involved



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Bilingual Lance (Voltron), Halloween, Head Injury, Headaches & Migraines, Horror, Hunk & Lance (Voltron) Friendship, Hunk (Voltron) is a Good Friend, Hurt Lance (Voltron), Insecure Lance (Voltron), Lance (Voltron) Angst, Lance (Voltron) is a Mess, Lance (Voltron)-centric, Monsters, Naga, Protective Shiro (Voltron), Protectiveness, Psychological Horror, Scary, Sickfic, Snakes, Space Dad Shiro (Voltron)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-17
Updated: 2018-10-17
Packaged: 2019-08-03 16:47:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,166
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16329839
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Way_too_involved/pseuds/Way_too_involved
Summary: After an impromptu mission on what was supposed to be an empty planet, Lance encountered his worst nightmare.





	Inhaled Horrors

A pounding headache woke Lance up from a deep slumber. No matter how many tablets Coran seemed to give him for the pain, it wouldn’t go away for long, just enough that he gets a taste of sleep before waking up abruptly again.

The last mission had been brutal. It was on a supposedly uninhabited planet that, according to their databases, Allura deemed was completely safe, and a great spot to have a few restful nights.

Upon reaching the planet and landing, it turned out to have not one, but several Galran factories that manufactured weapons and other tools that the Galran army might need in battle. Making what started off as a restful day turn into an impromptu mission to destroy those Galran factories.

It was going fairly well until Lance was cornered by six soldiers at the mouth of a large glass tank filled with boiling liquid chemicals. He shot off and fended as many as he could before exhaustion started taking effect. Lance started shaking violently, doubling with blurry vision and a few seconds away from passing out and falling into the chemical tank before a flash of Yellow and Red came into view.

Hunk used his long range gun to blast through the Sentries at the door while Keith ran inside and took down the rest of the Galran soldiers. Lance was about to run to the door before a broken stray pipe fell from the ceiling and hit his helmet, breaking off the visor completely. He tried holding his breath against the gaseous chemicals filling the factory as much as possible, but even his swimmer’s lungs couldn’t handle the time it took Hunk to carry him back to the Lions.

He ended up taking several lungful breaths to make up for the lost oxygen before finally passing out.

He woke up on his own bed at the Red Lion’s bedroom compartment with a splitting headache a few hours later. According to Coran, the lack of oxygen mixed with the inhaled chemicals was their biggest concern locking Lance on bed-rest for the rest of the week.

The rest was exactly what he needed, until it was not.

It was the calculated night time of their biological clock and the lions were dark and night-ly to make it easier to fit the mood. The rest of the Paladins were sleeping or lying in their beds enjoying the few hours of peace they were able to score.

Lance was about to drift off to sleep once again when he heard a rustling noise outside his door. He tried to ignore it but it was progressively getting louder by the minute until it was loud enough that he couldn’t just leave it unchecked. He waited to see if any of the others would go and do something about it, but after 20 minutes and no sign from any one of the team, he decided to do something himself.

The ex-blue paladin grabbed his blaster and made his way to the door ever so slowly… the sound was concentrated outside his Lion, the rustling of leaves and branches echoing in his brain. He tried to think but his thoughts couldn’t fully form with the constant distractions.

He thought about his soon to be battlefield, but came up with nothing; he had no idea how the planet looked like or if its air was breathable. He hadn’t left his Lion since his injury, making him ignorant to any useful information he could use to his benefit.

After finally deciding to open the door, Lance took a deep breath and stepped outside. A wave of wind hit his face, reminding him of his vulnerability and lack of helmet. He had no way to contact the team if something was to happen.

 _No, stop that_  he scolded himself,  _nothing’s gonna happen. It was probably an inhabitant… **but there are no inhabitants according to the lion’s database.**_

 ** _Fuck_**.

He walked around the Lion for any sign of what could’ve made the sound. It was strangely quiet contrasting just a few minutes ago. His heart beats were too loud in his ears that he could hear his blood rushing to his brain. The landscape around him was a huge clearing, probably Shiro’s idea to have all the Lions next to each other. The trees were a blue-ish colour with red and yellow leaves dotting the purple base, the grass was magenta but with the darkness falling on the land, made everything look black if Lance didn’t focus too much on getting his surroundings.

Another rustle came right behind him. He froze. An extremely dark shadow loomed over the human. Whatever it was, it was towering over him. He tried to calm his heart before it burst out of his chest but he was too scared. His hands shook with terror and his knees weakened, it took every fiber of his being keep his body standing.

He turned around, blue eyes widening at the sight of the creature above him.

Standing tall over him was the biggest snake Lance has ever seen. It was way taller than him, almost an arm length difference. The face _… Dios it had a face…_ was humanoid with the full set of eyes, nose and mouth. The scales covering its torso and tail were black with a reddish blend making it almost demonic, or at least that’s the closest comparison he could think of as this creature clearly came from the deep pits of hell.

It looked down at him, its teeth pulled in a grin as it stared at him with hungry yellow eyes. Lance took a step back. He tried to call for help but his voice didn’t seem to work. He shakily raised his blaster, getting a spot-on hit was out of the question, he just needed the blast to hit.

He shot the blaster three times. Not connecting once.

He took another step back while the snake slithered closer. It was toying with him, playing with its food. It looked at him like its win was inevitable, like there was no way for Lance to get out of here alive. Frankly, Lance thought so too.

He shot the blaster again, and again. Begging whoever was listening to him to  _please let me get one hit._

But luck wasn’t on his side, or his general area for that matter. He was utterly screwed. Until he heard it… It was his name being called to the dead of the night. On the second repetition he recognized it as the soft voice of Pidge.  _Dios… not Pidge._  He looked for her from behind the creature, spotting her in a distance.

The snake turned towards the Green Paladin’s direction and started moving towards the sound. Lance quickly made the decision to raise his blaster and fire as many shots as possible with his full concentration. He didn’t think hardly on whether it connected or not, his goal was to get and keep its attention onto him, to distract it from Pidge and the Lions. He was scared out of his mind but he will only let that _thing_ get anywhere closer to his friends over his dead body.

It was going fairly well until it slithered closer and closer to Lance who took even more steps backwards tripping on the rocks scattered on the ground, falling on his butt with a painful **_thud_**. A large mouth took up all of his visual field, its razor sharp teeth on display for Lance to have nightmares about for the next few weeks.

He crawled backwards, trying to put as much distance between them as possible. But the large size of the snake gave it leverage over his pathetic crawling speed. It caught up easily and struck Lance with spite, sinking its long fangs on to his thigh sending an electric shock through his spine into his brain. He could hardly register anything around him after that. Its tail rose and started wrapping its appendage around him tightly, oxygen intake completely blocked off from the pressure around his lungs and the pain on his thigh. He couldn’t think, couldn’t breathe, his vision was slowly tunneling.

The screaming voice of Pidge was the last thing heard before being engulfed in black.

* * *

Lance woke with a scream. He sat up so fast that he hit his head on the hard object above him – which turned out to be Shiro’s head – giving himself a bruise. The pain on his leg was causing him to sweat buckets and the previously lack of oxygen was giving him a headache.

Terrified eyes looked around the room taking in everything and nothing at once.

“I told you.” Someone he couldn’t identify said. “He was outside looking absolutely mental.”

Who was _he_? Lance? No way. Lance wasn’t crazy.

“Why is he so scared…?”

“Have you done a scan?”

“I am still waiting for the results.”

“STOP”

It was eerily quiet, taking him a minute to register that it was him who yelled. He tried to focus on his surroundings and realised that he was on the floor of the Black Lion – being the largest out of all five – with the entire team around him. It was all getting too much for his brain to handle; it was like having an out of body experience and suddenly being sucked back into his vessel and getting sensory overload.

Shiro motioned for everyone to back off as he got closer to the Cuban and sat next to him on his knees.

“Lance… how are you feeling, kiddo?”

How was he feeling? Were they insane? He was terrified and in pain…

“I know you are in pain, but can you tell me where exactly?”

Had he said that out loud? He couldn’t get a grip on his own motor skills… God he was pathetic.

“Hey, don’t say that about yourself… Just tell me where it hurts.”

“My head and the bite…” as he those words left his mouth, he saw it.

The black looming figure was standing right behind Hunk. It grinned, presenting its front teeth that were dripping blood. His blood… From the wound on his thigh. His eyes widened as his body shook with full-on tremors, trying to get a warning out to his team but his vocal cords were frozen with fear.

“Lance, buddy what is it.”

How the fuck do they not see it?

“It’s… its… right there… so big and black… _el diablo_ …”

“El Diablo? The Devil? Lance what are you talking about?”

As he started to open his mouth, the snake moved closer. It raised its tail at Hunk threateningly; as if telling him to **shut up**. It looked at him with understanding eyes; it wasn’t just a dumb animal looking for prey… No, it was a predator manipulating Lance to get what it wants.

He must’ve been so hyper-focused on the snake and what it was doing that he completely missed what Coran just said. Lance heard Allura gasp and bring her hand to her mouth. She looked at him with sorrowful eyes and then pity, probably as a result of Coran’s news.

He took another look at the snake to see if it’s still within his vicinity.

“What is it?” His voiced betraying him by wavering, reflecting his fear.

“Lance. What do you see?”

He whipped his head towards Pidge, eyes blown wide with shock. Was he not the only one played with… _Dios_ , what if it did something to Pidge after he passed out. He was so stupid that he didn’t check on Pidge the second he woke up… How he can call himself her big brother if he didn’t put her safety first at all times.

“What… What do you mean?”

“Lance… There is a part of your brain called the Amygdala and it is in overload right now, it is showing that there is a response happening to a scary stimulus making you feel extremely fearful. What are you seeing right now? Is it us? Are we scaring you?”

Pidge’s words made his head hurt even more. He tried to sit up but was stopped when pain shot from his thigh. A painful groan brought him back down on his back. He completely forgot about the bite wound for a second, too scared from the snake’s threat against Hunk. He wanted to say something about the snake, but noticing that it seemed to understand what he was saying; snitching on it would not be the best option right now.

But on the other hand, Hunk could handle himself fine. He was their strongest Paladin physically and he grew up on a farm meaning he has seen his fair share of snakes. None of which were like this one, he could bet, but never the less has seen snakes before. Lance was the complete opposite from Hunk in that area. He preferred animals if they were in cages at the zoo or if they were a dog. He loved dogs more than life itself, and was allergic to cats but that’s another issue. Snakes were… he didn’t like snakes. He hated them.

The pain at this point was getting unbearable, he couldn’t think straight and was starting to shake even more than before that he was sure the others noticed by now. How could they not see the giant fucking snake standing right behind them? The shadows it was making were too obvious and yet he was the only one seeing it and petrified.

_Maybe they are not as scared at you are because you are a fucking baby?_

No. That can’t be it, can it?

Another wave of pain sent him seizing on his back. It was too much. He heard panicked screams coming from his teammates but it was like he was listening to them underwater. Nothing was in focus but the pain in his thigh, or was it his stomach… He couldn’t remember… _What is happening to me?_

“Tie him down!! He could hurt himself!”

“I am trying!!”

He felt hands on his limbs holding him in place. Even their touch on his skin was faint from the overwhelming pain.

“Coran, Sedate him!!” Not even a few minutes later he felt a tiny prick on his neck and the pain faded to a dull throb. He arms and legs were heavy as if made of lead and his head lolled to the side without his control. He had perfect visual of the snake behind Shiro and Hunk. He couldn’t turn his eyes away from the horrific sight infront of him. _How did things go so wrong?_

A sob sounded from the broken boy on the floor of the Black Lion. His worst nightmare was looming over his leader and best friend; his helplessness making him feel worse by the second. The pain was slowly spreading everywhere now, his legs, arms, chest and head. He didn’t think things could get worse.

“I don’t understand…” The orange haired Altean sounded almost as helpless as Lance felt… _almost_. “The scans show over-activity of the brain. The only time I’ve seen this kind of activity was when Shiro was having nightmares in the pod.”

“Wha… What’s happening to me?” An incredibly small voice came out of the usually loud Paladin. “It… hurts so much…I can’t…”

“I know it hurts, my boy. But you have to tell me what happened.”

He dared to look at the snake for a second before looking back at Coran.

“I am so… scared.” There. He said it. Another sob came, and then another and another. He couldn’t stop once he started. “It’s standing right there and I hate snakes, _Dios, por favor_ get it away from me… it hurts so much I can’t think please… _Mama, lo siento”_

Lance’s sobs racked his chest; his words stopped being intangible a while ago.

“What is happening to him?”

“It’s the chemicals.” Keith said. He was holding Lance’s legs in place. “From the factory… it’s messing with his brain, right.”

Everyone looked at Keith before looking back at the boy in pain. He was muttering a prayer under his breath, the words _Maria_ and _Lo Siento_ coming in intervals. His face was flushed from an on growing fever, his entire body was in tremors and he kept wincing whenever he moved his legs.

“He said it hurts… he didn’t seem to be talking about only his head, he mentioned a bite… but he’s not hurt. How did he black out?”

“He was firing his blaster like crazy when I found. He fell on the floor and then stopped thrashing… He looked like he was choking.” Pidge answered.

  
“But there was nothing there, right?” Hunk asked nervously. “I mean there was nothing that could’ve attacked him.”

“What if he’s schizophrenic?” Shiro said finally.

Heads whipped around looking at Shiro.

“Lance is not mental.” Hunk said defensively.

“I’ve seen it before. Head injuries, especially with chemicals, could have unpredictable complications… He thinks he’s hurt and is clearly isn’t. He sees a… snake? But there clearly isn’t one either. Schizophrenic people truly and wholeheartedly believe what they feel and see. Their brain even responds to it.”

“So you think Lance is what you described?” Allura asked. She had never heard of someone seeing, feeling and hearing things that didn’t exist before. it was very interesting despite the circumstances.

“Yeah.”

“How do you know so much about Schizophrenia, anyways?” Pidge wondered out loud.

“My mother has it… She was on meds though.”

No one decided to pursue the questions further. Lance had calmed down significantly, though he was still shaking. Coran stood from the floor and made his way to the pods.

“If what you are describing is true, I could adjust the pods to try and right the chemicals in Lance’s brain. It wouldn’t get rid of everything but will give him time to calm down and flush the chemicals out.”

“Don’t… Don’t get near them… I am sorry… I didn’t mean to tell them about your presence… I am sorry.” Lance’s desperate helpless cries were getting shallower, so was his breathing. His heart was beating too fast at this point. No one understood what Lance was seeing but they had to do something before he gave himself a heart attack.

Shiro dove and slid his arms under his knees and shoulders. He started to thrash against the older male. A scream broke through Lance as his ‘injuries’ must’ve been aggravated. He was muttering, though no longer coherent. He was fading in and out of consciousness, his face paler than possible for his skin tone. His pupils were dilated with fear but glazed and unseeing. Shiro’s heart broke at his sight…

Coran moved out of the way for Shiro to lay Lance in a pod. It took way longer than usual for the cryosleep to get to him, his eyes darting around the room as he muttered unheard apologies to everyone. After 2 minutes of calibrating, the fog finally sent Lance to sleep.

**Author's Note:**

> This was part of the Monster Mash thingie @langstymclangstface  
> @no-i-didnt-notice-im-short 
> 
> Kudos/Comment are deeply appreciated.


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